Tank Profile New 55 Gallon Tank (with L2 scrubber)

I transfered all of my critters from a 40 gallon setup to a new 55 gallon tank. Lesson learned (after) was that it is difficult to fit anything under a 55 gallon tank. Therefore, I resorted to three 5 gallon buckets as a sump

The L2 arrived yesterday and I just installed the unit a few hours ago. Here are some pictures of my tank, the setup and the L2 itself.

The sump. Left bucket is where water drains and where water is pumped into the L2 scrubber. You can't really see it but I have 4-5 mangroves growing in the left bucket as well...but just for fun not for filtration. Left bucket is also directly connected to the second bucket. The second bucket has activated carbon and is where the L2 scrubber drains (as well as the emergency drain). This bucket connects directly to the right bucket which has my return pump, my auto top off (white bucket on top) and my heater. Very crowded but I had no choice.

Interesting. That's great for 1 week in. This supports my theory that tanks that have been running a scrubber, then you either add a different scrubber or change the screen to a brand new one, they mature very fast. This is not the only time I've seen this.

I sent a replacement screen to one my customers and he tossed the old one, and the new screen ramped up really fast.

I sent an L4 to someone who has ran scrubbers for a while, that one matured very quickly.

It seems that there might be a phase where the tank gets conditioned or accustomed to a scrubber. This could explain slow starting scrubbers added to tanks that have never ran one. I can't think of another logical explanation.

I haven't been taking pictures of my scrubber when I've cleaned it through the month of August. I was in the Netherlands for the last two weeks of August so the last time before today that I had cleaned the scrubber was the week of 10th-14th.

When I got back I knew I was going to have a lot of growth but I didn't think I would have this much! This is essentially 4 weeks of growth. I pulled out about the equivalent of almost a baseball of algae from the system!

Well it has been a long while since I have updated anyone on my tank. Fortunately, the scrubber did more than an amazing job keeping my tank clean. I managed to keep a TON of pods in my tank which kept my mandarin very happy and healthy. Unfortunately, I was put in a position where I needed to leave my apartment immediately and there was nowhere to put any of my critters in the meantime. So the whole setup is broken down and stowed away in storage. All of the critters are in a safe home. I do plan on bringing the system back online at the end of this year when my living situation is more stable.